Updated: Tuesday, January 21st, 2014 at 9:27am

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — The family of a New Mexico middle school girl shot by a fellow student on campus said the suspected shooter “is not a bad boy” and that people need to stop trying to find someone to blame.

Bert Sanders, the father of 13-year-old shooting victim Kendal, told reporters Monday he believes the boy’s family are “good people,” the Roswell Daily Record reports. He also said his daughter and the suspected shooter are friends.

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Both went to Vacation Bible Study together and Kendal shares her father’s forgiving nature, he said. “She is not angry at (the suspected shooter). She thinks he made bad choices,” Bert Sanders told reporters.